Big Bad Voodoo Valentine

Ah Valentine's Day. The day that strikes fear in to the hearts of every man who has a woman. And really, it's only tough once you've firmly hooked them. All the guys who are courting some sweet young thing love it because it gives them a chance to show that they are sensitive and we know that the girls just eat that up (It was cute to see Chris drive up and give Carly a Valentine Bear). What the girls just don't seem to understand is that once the chase has ended, the game is over. Right? What's the point of going through all that effort when you've already won?

Anyway, just to keep the meals coming, I arranged for a Valentine's Day outing for the big day. I had heard on the radio that a band called Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was going to be at Twin Rivers in Rhode Island for V-Day. This is a modern day swing band who have had a few hits on the radio and I've liked them from the first time I heard them. Here's a link to an Amazon page with some of their songs. You can hear snippets by clicking the "play" triangle icon next to each song. "Mr. Pinstripe Suit" is representative of their stuff. A lot of their stuff is actually too fast for us to dance to but I decided to get tickets and see what it was like.

We got to the casino and walked through the noise and smoke and finally found the room holding the concert. It was in a big general purpose hall with folding chairs set up and two "dance floors" in the center. There was quite an eclectic mix of people trickling in - everything from old to young, people in jeans (like us) to people decked out in 20's flapper dresses and felt hats. The band came out (in suits and hats), started playing, and the dance floor immediately filled. We got out there after the first song and did our best to keep up. Our main dance is a triple step swing which is geared for a slower beat than these guys were playing. We can modify it into a single step swing for faster beats, which is what we did, but the turns are much faster and it's easy to get messed up. We still had fun though and worked up a sweat. We also enjoyed just watching some of the really good dancers. It's amazing how many different types of moves there are and how much we don't know. There were guys swinging the girls around and overhead and under. Crazy.

The band itself was really, really good and just listening to the music was a treat. We had a really good time.

We start up with lessons again in a couple of weeks with our old instructor. It's a beginner class so it might be a bit remedial for us but some friends are supposed to sign up so it should be fun.